Lifestyle How to Outrun your Bear

Sway Soturi

In Precision Nutrition coaching, there is an analogy – Running From the Bear. You don’t have to outrun the bear, you just need to run a little faster then the slowest person.

Over the past two months I have been feeling “not that great” in my body.

Why? I’m quite healthy and everything seems to be in awesome mode. But the fact that I stopped weight training regularly has brought pain back into my body and burden (and perhaps slight depression) into my mind. (We’ll talk about the benefit of resistance training another time, I promise.)

My laying out the “I’m so busy”, starting a business and going through yoga teacher training excuses might have worked for “myself” but it certainly didn’t fool my body or my mind; the stress only kept pile on; the pain kept coming back due to inactivity. I knew I was not doing the best I could.

SOMETHING HAS GOT TO CHANGE!

outrun-the-bear

APPLYING THIS TO ONE’S HEALTH JOURNEY – YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE PERFECT, YOU JUST NEED TO BE A LITTLE BETTER THAN YESTERDAY, OR 3 HOURS AGO, OR 10 MINUTES AGO.

I also fell into the trap of “Damn, I don’t have an whole hour to workout so I’m just not going to.”

Life is a constant revolving door, something will always bound to happen and mess up the perfect schedule you mapped out. Instead of giving up entirely, we only just need to be better than what was.

So this morning, instead of my planned 45 minute lower body weight training session (yes, ultimately something happened and my schedule went all wonky – yes, I lost 15 minutes because the child in me would not get out of bed) I opt for a 20 minute HIIT workout that incorporated upper, lower body, weight, and cardio.

Sure, I won’t be flexing my muscles anytime soon, but I feel accomplished and I feel good, because for me, the 20 minute activity helped keeping my body in check and the pain away.

So how can you outrun your bear?

  • Maybe it’s drinking one less soda today or drink one extra glass of water
  • Walk around the block once or twice
  • Perhaps you were in a rush and had a crappy breakfast, that’s ok, don’t discount your day just yet, how about just make better choice for your lunch?
  • Haven’t had time to spend with your kids? Just read for 5 minutes together
  • Maybe it’s parking further and walk farther when you go to the store
  • Taking one additional break during work and hit 20 squats
  • Add in one fruit for snack today instead of the second cupcake
  • Or have half of the cupcake instead of the whole one!

The possibility is endless and only you know what works for you.

I’m here for you if you need help brainstorming how to outrun your bear, don’t hesitate to reach out!

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